nce he looked at the clock; it was just 1600.

* * * * *

The green aircar settled onto the landing stage; Verkan Vall, on the
front seat beside the driver, opened the door.

"Want me to call for you later, Assistant Verkan?" the driver asked.

"No thank you, Drenth. My wife and I are going to a dinner-party, and
we'll probably go night-clubbing afterward. Tomorrow morning, all the
anti-Management commentators will be yakking about my carousing around
when I ought to be battling the Slave Trust. No use advertising myself
with an official car, and giving them a chance to add, 'at public
expense.'"

"Well, have some fun while you can," the driver advised, reaching for
the car-radio phone. "Want me to check you in here, sir?"

"Yes, if you will. Thank you. Drenth."

Kandagro, his human servant, admitted him to the apartment six floors
down.

"Mistress Dalla is dressing," he said. "She asked me to tell you that
you are invited to dinner, this evening, with Thalvan Dras at his
apartment."

Vall nodded. "Ill talk to her about it now," he said. "Lay out my
dress uniform: short jacket, boots and breeches, and needler."

"Yes, master: I'll go lay out your things and get your bath ready."

The servant turned and went into the alcove which gave access to the
dressing rooms, turning right into Vall's. Vall followed him, turning
left into his wife's.

"Oh, Dalla!" he called.

"In here!" her voice came out of her bathroom.

He passed through the dressing room, to find her stretched on a
plastic-sheeted couch, while her maid, Rendarra, was rubbing her body
vigorously with some pungent-smelling stuff about the consistency of
machine-grease. Her face was masked in the stuff, and her hair was
covered with an elastic cap. He had always suspected that beauty was
the real feminine religion, from the willingness of its devotees to
submit to martyrdom for it. She wiggled a hand at him in greeting.

"How did it go?" she asked.

"So-so. I organized myself a sort of miniature police force within a
police force and I have liaison officers in every organization down to
Sector Regional so that I can be informed promptly in case anything
new turns up anywhere. What's been happening on Home Time Line? I
picked up a news-summary at Paratime Police Headquarters; it seems
that a lot more stuff has leaked out. Kholghoor Sector, Wizard Traders
and all. How'd it happen?"

Dalla rolled over to allow Renda